This Case Was Based on a True Story

Has this ever happened to you: you’re sitting in a dark theater about to enjoy the next big summer blockbuster. Then the screen goes dark, and some haunting music alerts you that the next movie trailer is for a horror film. Clutching your popcorn you see flashes of ghosts, demons, jump scares, and shaky cam. You may feel a little creeped until you see the scariest part of all: words flashing on the screen that read, “BASED ON A TRUE STORY.” 

As unbelievable as it seems, many classic horror films were based on actual documented events. Sure, the stories may have changed when they made it to Hollywood, but it’s still creepy to imagine that these horrifying tales were inspired by real experiences. For this week’s episode of Frightening February, we each picked a horror film that was based on or inspired by a true story!

*Some of these stories involve real-life tragedies and violent acts. We do not usually discuss this kind of material on our show, so we wanted to give you a heads up just in case you find the topics of real-life violence and death triggering.* 

Jaws (1975)

  • Movie Synopsis

  • It's the height of beach season, and the town of Amity Island is terrorized by attacks from a great white shark. As panic threatens to deprive the city of its crucial tourist season, the mayor turns to Martin Brody, the new chief of police, to solve the issue. Brody enlists the help of an oceanographer and a sea-wary fisherman to hunt down the great white menace that has turned the Amity Island shore into a feeding ground.

  • Making of

    • Directed by the one and only Steven Spielberg, Jaws was based on the 1974 novel written by Peter Benchley. Benchley penned the first drafts of the screenplay, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

    • Before Jaws began filming, Spielberg wanted to direct the film Lucky Lady instead. Studio head Sid Sheinberg basically "ordered" him to make Jaws. If you ask Sheinberg, Spielberg was not happy with the decision and reportedly had the attitude of, "You're my friend. How can you make me do this fish picture?"

    • Spielberg ultimately agreed to shoot the film. He decided to film on the Atlantic Ocean, hindering production and creating logistical difficulties, equipment issues, and weather-related delays. Because of this, Jaws took more than twice as long to make as planned and cost nearly four times the original budget. The film's box office success proved that Spielberg's creative decision was worth the risk. He explained, "Lake water, pond water, tank water ... [don't] have the same texture or violence that the ocean has. This needed to be a convincing story about a great white shark because if it wasn't, no one would believe it."

  • The Original Stories

    • Author Peter Benchley had a lifelong fascination with sharks and was inspired to write the novel after reading about an estimated 4,500-pound great white shark caught by Frank Mundus in 1964. Mundus started "Monster Fishing," an activity that began at the port at Lake Montauk. Mundus caught the enormous great white shark by harpoon. Later in 1986, he and Donnie Braddick caught a 3,427-pound great white about 28 miles off Montauk, which still holds the record (not credited by the International Game Fish Association) for the largest fish of any kind ever caught by rod and reel.

    • The second story is one of, if not the worst maritime disasters in U.S. naval history. On July 29th, 1945, the USS Indianapolis sank due to an explosive chain reaction triggered by a Japanese torpedo. Of the almost 1200 men aboard, 900 made it into the shark-infested water alive. But, their ordeal was just beginning. As the survivors waited for rescue, the sharks fed on the floating bodies. However, the survivors' struggles in the water attracted more and more sharks. As the days passed, many sailors fell victim to heat and thirst or experienced hallucinations that drew them to drink the seawater around them. This resulted in death by salt poisoning. Without going into too much more gruesome detail of the Indianapolis' original 1,196-man crew, only 317 remained. The number of men that died from shark attacks ranges from an estimated few dozen to almost 150. It's impossible to know the actual numbers. Regardless, this event is considered the deadliest shark attack in history. 

    • With the final story, the inspiration for Jaws will finally come into focus. In July of 1916, a 9ft juvenile sea creature, then primarily unknown to scientists, briefly replaced the Great War in newspaper headlines. 

    • From July 1st to the 12th, five swimmers were attacked, and four were killed by a great white shark on the Jersey Shore. The shark's reign of terror spanned 70 miles along the Atlantic, attacking victims from a beach town north of Atlantic City, all the way to a farm town on an inland creek. The first death occurred in Beach Haven, New Jersey, and involved a recent University of Pennsylvania graduate named Charles Vansant. Unfortunately, people on the beach didn't realize that he was serious when he screamed for help. Scientists at the time believed that sharks lacked the 'jaw power' to bite through human enamel. It was the first recorded fatal shark attack in American history, but no one was aware. Death number two was reported after beachgoers discovered a body bitten in half. Another swimmer was pulled to his death in an estuary as a would-be hero wrestled with the shark and died. Now suddenly, the real-life monster made the front page of The New York Times. Some town mayors denied the attacks, fearful of losing seaside resort income until the horror forced resorts to shutter their doors, and the cities called in scientists for help. 

  • How the Movie was the Same

    • Sound familiar? The 1916 story is almost the spitting image of Jaws. The movie shark has a similar body count, killing four people, including a victim in an estuary. Not only that, but moviegoers watch as a would-be hero wrestles with the shark and dies. True to life, the mayor denies it's happening to try and protect the tourist dollars. After the fictional ichthyologist struggles to identify the species of the killer, he zeros in on the legendary man-eating monster, Carcharodon carcharias, the great white shark, and even brings up the attacks in 1916. 

    • Even though Peter Benchley says the incident was not the original inspiration for his book, these similarities are undeniable.

  • How the Movie Changed the Story

    • Of course, Hollywood always embellishes stories to make them as entertaining or thrilling as possible. For instance, they attempt to kill the shark with harpoons attached to barrels to keep it from diving. In the movie, Jaws is simply too large and powerful for this to work. A super behemoth of a shark can even pull the fishing boat backward. However, this is how Frank Mundus caught his 4,500-pound monster back in 1964. The movie required a more exciting and explosive way to deal with Jaws.

    • Additionally, in the true story, the scientists and fishermen tasked with catching the shark in 1916 were not killed in the process. The four earlier victims were all the shark got to before meeting its own fate. 

  • What Impact the Movie Had

    • For a film almost 50 years old, Jaws continues to deliver to audiences old and new alike. Jaws is firmly the apex predator when it comes to any other shark film. Jaws inspired many horror films. In fact, the script for Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction film Alien was pitched to studio executives as "Jaws in space." 

    • The film was vital in establishing the benefits of a vast national release backed by heavy television advertising and played a significant part in establishing summer as the prime season for releasing studios' biggest box-office contenders. Opening a film simultaneously at thousands of theaters and massive media buys are now commonplace for the major Hollywood studios. According to film historian and critic, Peter Biskind, Jaws "diminished the importance of print reviews, making it virtually impossible for a film to build slowly, finding its audience by dint of mere quality. ... Moreover, Jaws whet corporate appetites for big profits quickly, which is to say, studios wanted every film to be Jaws." 

    • Jaws might be the prototypical blockbuster, a feat of studio genius and marketing as well as Spielberg's filmmaking. Considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jaws was a defining moment in motion picture history.

Amityville Horror (1979)

Whether you're a fan of horror or not, you likely have heard of the Amityville Horror. The infamous house on Ocean Avenue along the coast of Long Island was the site of an incredibly tragic murder. That much is indisputable. The story that took place beyond that has certainly faced its fair share of skepticism. Multiple films follow the story of the Lutz family, but I am going to focus on the one that premiered in 1979. 

  • George and Kathy Lutz move into a large house on the coast of Long Island, New York, with their three children. Their new home is quite the fixer-upper, and even though the real estate agent has disclosed that the previous family had been murdered, the Lutzes move in anyway. Not long after, their daughter starts playing with an imaginary friend, George starts to act strange, and the house's past seemingly comes back to haunt them. 

    • Stuart Rosenburg directed the film with a screenplay written by Sandor Stern. After the alleged hauntings in December of 1975, George and Kathy Lutz approached a screenwriter named Jay Anson, who wrote a book about their experiences. It was a best-seller, and he eventually sold the film rights for over $200,000 to American International Pictures. Actor James Brolin was cast as the lead, and the film began shooting sometime in the fall of 1978. 

    • The actual home was not used in the film, as it did not have a good layout for filming and because the current residents and the people of Amityville did not wish for more publicity. In fact, the house owners sued the book publisher for invasion of privacy, claiming that the book was not fact-checked and their home had turned into a tourist attraction. 

  • The Original Story

    • On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his parents and four siblings around 3:15 in the morning. Initially, he did not report the murders until the next day, when he ran into a bar and declared that his parents had been shot. Shortly after being taken into custody for his protection, DeFeo confessed to committing the homicide. Many facts about the crime didn't seem to add up. For example, no one in the house seemed to hear the murders, as all victims were found face-down in bed. No neighbors reported hearing shots either. Toxicology reports suggested no sedatives were used, although DeFea claimed otherwise. His story often changed in the subsequent years. 

    • Just about a year later, on December 18, 1975, the Lutz family moved in. The seemingly paranormal experiences that followed for the next 28 days would become the topic of a book written by Jay Anson. It started with the family priest who came to bless the home. After entering the house, he reported that he heard a man's voice yell to get out. He turned around to find he was alone. Afterward, his car stalled suddenly along the side of the road after the hood and door swung open and the windshield shattered. He called another priest for a ride home. After being dropped off, his friend called to tell him that he was also experiencing strange car trouble after giving him a ride. 

    • Also, on the first day, the family dog somehow jumped over the fence and almost died from strangulation. George and his son were able to rescue the dog in time. Even though the dog is a prominent character in the movie, this scene is not depicted. George Lutz claimed to experience a lot of strange phenomena. He supposedly awoke at 3:15 AM (the approximate time of the murders) for several nights in a row. He witnessed a figure by the boathouse that disrupted the family dog. He also never seemed to feel warm in the home and became obsessed with fueling the fireplace. This detail is another piece of the story featured prominently in the movie. 

    • As the month went on, the family experienced more events like toilets filling with a dark substance, foul-smelling air, nightmares of the murders, and an upside-down crucifix. One of the nights when George went to check the boathouse, he saw his five-year-old daughter standing in the window watching him, with a pig's face behind her. 

    • The family priest had a bad feeling about one of the rooms in the Lutz' house, so he called. The phone cut out during the call, but the Lutzes took the warning seriously. When they told the kids, Missy explained that they couldn't go in that room because her imaginary friend, Jody, was in there. Eventually, the Lutz family had enough. They ran out of their home after 28 days and stayed with Kathy's mother. But even after leaving the house, they experienced floating above their beds and slime coming up the stairs after them. They reportedly moved to California to get far away from their home. 

    • After the publication of The Amityville Horror, many of these claims were seemingly debunked. In 1979, the attorney for Ron Defeo Jr. claimed that he and the Lutzes created the story together over some wine. He said he wanted to write a book with them, but they cut him out of the deal and found another writer. Furthermore, several publications began investigating all the claims in the book and found a lot of discrepancies. It appeared that the Lutzes had not contacted the Catholic church during their ordeal, which was a big part of the story. 

    • In later years, Daniel Lutz, the oldest of the three children, claimed that the hauntings did happen but were caused by evil spirits drawn to George Lutz and his dabbling of the occult. 

  • How the Movie Changed the Story

    • As you can imagine, the Amityville Horror from 1979 added story elements and visuals to make the story more exciting to viewers. Although many feel that the Lutz' story is too unbelievable, to begin with, the film and its remakes expanded further. For starters, the film depicts the family priest entering the house, hearing the disembodied "get out!" and receiving boils on his hands. However, the film also shows him locked in a room that immediately fills with flies. No one has ever claimed that this occurred. The priest suffers from several afflictions on screen and is blinded by the spirits. Although a real-life priest claimed to suffer various torments, this was not one of them.

    • Screenwriters completely fabricated one of the most famous scenes in the film. It features the babysitter, Jackie, getting locked in the closet by Jodie, the invisible imaginary friend of the Lutz's young daughter. She knocks so hard that her hands bleed until the parents come home and let her out. 

    • In their book, both George and Kathy Lutz claimed that the house was built on indigenous land, near a place where the Shinnecock Tribe would leave dying loved ones. The film expresses this information, but the Shinnecock did not live in the Amityville area and did not abandon their sick and elderly loved ones. 

  • Initially, The Amityville Horror was meant to be a made-for-TV film but ended up being the second highest-grossing film of the year and the highest-grossing independent film until 1990. It broke ground as one of the first truly popular haunted house films. It not only inspired several remakes and sequels, but it also inspired a lot of haunted house media. Critics seemingly despised the film, although it was uplifted by over-the-top performances and the draw from basing a horror film on "true events," no matter how questioned those events may be. 

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare Before Elm Street

  • Dreams fascinate everyone. They have gripped humanity for years across many religions and cultures. In the Bible, Joseph has dreams that foretell of his future: where his brothers bow down to him. Not only did he have dreams, but he also interpreted the dreams of others. Historically the dreams of Kings, royalty, and Pharaohs tended to be deemed more important, and many ancient civilizations have believed in the powers of dreams. But what happens when those dreams turn sour and become a nightmare?   

  • Movie Synopsis

    • Teens in Springwood, Ohio, have dreams that seem similar. A particular nightmarish character comes after them. When one of the young girls dies after falling asleep and having another nightmare, it is up to the others to find out what is really going on and try to stop it from happening to them.

    • Who directed it, who wrote it?

      • Wes Craven was the director and writer for the film.

      • Fun Fact: Every studio before New Line had rejected it. Wes has since even framed and hung the rejection from Universal on the wall in his office. 

    • Why they made it (if you can find it)

      • The first movie that Wes Craven was able to write and direct was a famous movie called The Last House on the Left. The backers of this movie had wanted a scary movie, and so he and Sean Cunningham (who had hired him) made Last House on the Left.

        • Before this, he had never thought of doing a horror movie; it's not what he set out to do, especially being raised in a strict Protestant household. However, after the success of two films, he was able to take six months off and focus on the horror genre. 

          • He took this time to write and refine A Nightmare on Elm Street.

  • The Original Story

    • Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome

      • In a 2014 interview with Vulture magazine, Wes Craven recounted the most prominent real-life inspiration for the film. He said, "I'd read an article in the L.A. Times about a family who had escaped the Killing Fields in Cambodia and managed to get to the U.S. Things were fine, and then suddenly the young son was having very disturbing nightmares. He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time. When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying." 

      • A little background Information

        • The Vietnam War was a brutal conflict. Some people were disrespectful towards those that fought because they disagreed with the war. Our American soldiers were able to come home to the soil with which they were familiar. Unfortunately, some of our Allies did not have the same opportunity. 

          • America fought against Communism in Laos and were limited to bombing from above because the Geneva Accords made it illegal to send troops on land. The CIA made plans to arm civilians in Laos to circumvent this rule. To achieve this, the CIA exploited the unease between the minority Hmong hill dwellers and the lowland Lao majority. They persuaded the minority to help secretly with the promise of good pay and resources. So many of their people perished within the fights, many saying that more lives were lost than American lives. When America pulled out of Vietnam, General Vang Pao, a CIA recruiter and Hmong native himself, knew that swift revenge would be on those who had opposed Communism. He took control and helped the CIA arrange for 3,500 Hmong residents to be evacuated via three airplanes. The rest of the people fled by foot, approximately 40,000 of which not all made it to Thailand. 

          • Those who escaped to America encountered a large culture shock, as they weren't familiar with 24-hour drive-thrus and other facets of American life.

            • According to migrationpolicy.org, as of 1975, when the war ended, more than 200,000 Hmong refugees that traveled to America. Many settled in Minnesota, Seattle, Portland, Iowa, and Orange County California. 

      • During the 1980's a strange occurrence began happening. A (usually healthy 20-30 male) Hmong would have loud labored breathing during sleep and then would pass away. Wes Craven read several articles about this happening and was inspired. He thought about different reasons why this could have happened and thought that the dream had killed the men. 

      • Here are just some of the articles that may have influenced Wes.

        • https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/10/us/nightmares-suspected-in-bed-deaths-of-18-laotians.html

        • https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-01-11-mn-3961-story.html

        • https://misterbulger.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/laotianarticle1.pdf

        • https://misterbulger.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/laotianarticle5.pdf

        • https://misterbulger.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/laotianarticle2.pdf

        • https://misterbulger.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/laotianarticle3.pdf

        • https://misterbulger.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/laotianarticle4.pdf

    • By the end of 1981 the CDC had identified 35 cases of Hmong deaths in the U.S. from this unexplained phenomenon. 

    • We always want to make sense of the unexplained and so one reason many thought that this could be happening was a mixture of culture shock, stress, and PTSD. Still, others believe it could have been delayed effects of the chemical warfare that the North Vietnamese employed.  

  • How the Movie Changed the Story or Stayed the Same

    • A Nightmare on Elm Street did not necessarily change the story. Instead it took a simple idea of dying while screaming or struggling to breathe and expanded it, creating a singular character to fear that turns nightmares to death.    

    • FREDDY is the name of a kid that would often beat up Wes as a kid.

      • The name Krueger reminded him of a German name and the war plants in Nazi Germany.

        • It was also an extension of Krueg, who was a character in Last House on the Left.

      • Freddy's hat was inspired by a man that Wes knew as a child. He wore a similar cap that scared him. 

      • When trying to decide what weapon Freddy would have he watched his cat at the time stretch out their claws and had that aha moment!

    • Lucid dreaming inspired the fact that Nancy could bring back Freddy's hat.

  • What Impact the Movie Had

    • New Line Cinema was the house that Freddy built. A Nightmare on Elm Street was the first really successful film for the studio. The ending gross revenue was approximately $24 million. 

      • Rob Zombie (an american singer-songwriter) aptly said in the same Vulture magazine article as before that "Freddy Krueger built New Line the same way Frankenstein built Universal. The same way Saw built Lions Gate."

      • It made it possible for them to later produce The Conjuring movies, the Blade movies, Seven, Lord of the Rings, Final Destination, and more!

      • When they finally acquired Friday the 13th they spent 10 years working on the Freddy vs. Jason movie which was a huge success due to the loyal fans of both franchises.

    • It had a major impact- people loved it and there were several sequels

      • There were even dolls and other toys made. This was pretty crazy and weird when you think about how he is actually a child killer.

Movies are great at reaching inside our brains and stimulating our deepest fears. It’s always nice to flip on the lights and take a deep breath, remembering it was all just a movie. But what happens when the story is true? Well, thankfully, the true stories that inspire scary films are not usually as terrifying as what you see on screen. But if even parts of these fantastic tales are true, what other strange and terrifying phenomena lurk in the unknown?

Sources:


80's, Film History, Horror, PodcastAdam OsburnJaws, Amityville Horror, 1979, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Wes Craven, Lutz, Steven Spielberg, Peter Benchley, Stuart Rosenburg